Seeking a really good, readable book on Church history

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Tis_Bearself

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I’m looking for a really good, readable book on the history of the Catholic Church, preferably including some discussion of Orthodox as well as RC. I know the basics, as somehow this managed to be one topic that was covered somewhat adequately in my high school (or maybe I read up on my own back then, can’t remember) but would like something more complete than high school level.

Also, if there’s a good reference book that discusses all the branches of Catholicism, I’d like to know that too. I’m trying to learn more about non-RC Catholic churches but finding it hard to put the pieces together from Wiki and random Web pages which frequently seem biased.
 
As it so happens, I’m reading and almost finished with James Hitchcock’s History of the Catholic Church; From the Apostolic Age to the Third Millennium, (2012, Ignatius Press). Chapter 7, East and West, covers the Orthodox and Roman Catholic history, albeit briefly since the book covers a lot of ground. Hitchcock as a historian has a traditional, conservative point of view, and it sometimes shows in his commentary. He also seems pretty fair and balanced, readily admitting the Church’s mistakes and foibles when appropriate. I’ve really enjoyed reading the book.
 
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If you want a really good, super-readable book on Church history, I strongly recommend “The Apostasy that Wasn’t” by Rod Bennett. Although it doesn’t cover all of church history, what it DOES cover is invaluable knowledge for anyone who wants to understand our Faith and it’s history, especially since this “apostasy” is the basis for many of the false claims of protestant groups (among others) in an attempt to validate their own beliefs. This book provide’s a very readable (story-like format that had me hooked from start to finish) in-depth look at the Church in the early years when it was a crime to be a Christian in Rome, and goes through the Council of Nicaea in 325 and the Council of Constantinople in 381. However, I’m no great writer so I’ll leave you this description of the book by the publishers:

“With the touch of a master storyteller, Rod Bennett narrates the drama of the early Church s fight to preserve Christian orthodoxy intact even as powerful forces try to smash it to pieces. The theory goes like this: Just a few centuries after Christ s death, around the time the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, the true Faith suffered a catastrophic falling-away. The simple truths of the gospel became so obscured by worldliness and pagan idolatry kicking off the Dark Ages of Catholicism that Christianity required a complete reboot. This idea of a Great Apostasy is one of the cornerstones of American Protestantism, along with Mormonism, the Jehovah s Witnesses, and even Islam. Countless millions today profess a faith built on the assumption that the early Church quickly became broken beyond repair, requiring some new prophet or reformer to restore the pure teaching of Jesus and the apostles. This theory is popular… but it s also fiction.”

You won’t be able to put this one down, and reading it will open your eyes to things about the early Church that you probably didn’t even know you didn’t know 😉 I know it did for me anyway!
 
Couple that book with Bennett’s earlier work Four Witnesses and you have a pretty good general history of the early Catholic Church.
 
The Church Ascending by Diane Moczar is a short very readable account of the Catholic Church into the late Middle Ages. A bonus is the author’s reading suggestions at the end of each chapter to go deeper into each historical period.
 
History of the Catholic Church: From the Apostolic Age to the Third MillenniumDec 19, 2012
by James Hitchcock
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I’m looking for a really good, readable book on the history of the Catholic Church, preferably including some discussion of Orthodox as well as RC. I know the basics, as somehow this managed to be one topic that was covered somewhat adequately in my high school (or maybe I read up on my own back then, can’t remember) but would like something more complete than high school level.

Also, if there’s a good reference book that discusses all the branches of Catholicism, I’d like to know that too. I’m trying to learn more about non-RC Catholic churches but finding it hard to put the pieces together from Wiki and random Web pages which frequently seem biased.
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I don’t mean to sound contentious, but whenever you read a historical survey, you’re always going to get a “history according to…”.

There is very little, if any history, that can be told without inciting some sort of emotional reaction, one way or another, and this generates a deep bias in the account you’re reading. Academics will go to great lengths to disguise this, but it still frequently shows; as you’ve read in some of the comments above.

I’d also throw in Diarmaid MacColluch’s "A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. But it’s not readily “readable”. It’s a downright slog in some parts. But alas; History.

He’s gay, orthopractically Anglican and biased in favor of his progressive views; so I wouldn’t be so quick to take his telling as “How It Is/Was”. But I’d throw him into your mental soup from which you “laddle” out how certain historical events are to be interpreted. Never hurts to have another perspective. 😄
 
Thanks, yes i know it’s very hard to escape bias, but there are some historians that at least make an effort, even if their personal bugaboos mean they will not be entirely successful.
I’m not really ready to read an Anglican book just yet. I couldn’t care less if someone is gay, but as an Irish Catholic, I have to make some mental effort to “like” the Anglicans, even though I know we’re all buddies now and many of them are very nice folks. I generally just take a little spin through something like Foxe’s Book of Martyrs when I’m feeling ecumenical 🙂 or I remember going to summer school years ago at Trinity next to Balliol and having to daily pass that cross in the street where the Catholics burnt some heretics back in the day.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Thanks, yes i know it’s very hard to escape bias, but there are some historians that at least make an effort, even if their personal bugaboos mean they will not be entirely successful.
I’m not really ready to read an Anglican book just yet. I couldn’t care less if someone is gay, but as an Irish Catholic, I have to make some mental effort to “like” the Anglicans, even though I know we’re all buddies now and many of them are very nice folks. I generally just take a little spin through something like Foxe’s Book of Martyrs when I’m feeling ecumenical 🙂 or I remember going to summer school years ago at Trinity next to Balliol and having to daily pass that cross in the street where the Catholics burnt some heretics back in the day.
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Bittersweetly, nothing like that in America… At least, nothing that deeply reverbs of western history. Maybe in nearby Cuba…

But to be sure, I’m not entirely sure readable and objective historical texts exist.

Looking at the Battle of Tours, we see Martel leading a group of some 30k Franks to defeat a substantially larger group Umayyads. One side will add: “saving western Christendom”. Another would add: “ending a minor Muslim expedition into Francia”.

But back to Diarmaid, he’s likes throwing punches at everyone. Henry and his English Church don’t get off lightly either. That convinced me to read it and treat it as a reasonable text to consider.

My two-cents, for what it’s worth (which is less than two-cents). Happy reading!
 
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